Use titanium tubes to create higher-capacity, corrosion-resistant exchangers
- Joseph Oat Corporation, Camden, NJ (United States)
- High Performance Tube, Inc., Warren, NJ (United States)
Revamping heat exchangers with titanium-finned tubes provided an 11.7% production increase for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant at Bontang, East Kalimantan, Indonesia. The technology was chosen due to its high resistance to corrosive seawater, which is used as a cooling medium. With the end of the cold war, supplies of titanium became much more readily available and more reasonably priced. As a result, within the past few years, titanium has become the metal of choice for tubing whenever seawater is used for cooling. Its high resistance to corrosion and erosion in marine environments, and virtual elimination of tubeside fouling and scaling make it a prime candidate for heat exchanger tube replacement in coastal plants. Titanium is still not inexpensive. However, this is compensated for by using a low-profile finned-tube design. The paper describe the heat exchanger retrofit in the LNG plant.
- OSTI ID:
- 122683
- Journal Information:
- Hydrocarbon Processing, Vol. 74, Issue 10; Other Information: PBD: Oct 1995
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Kalimantan field development hikes gas supply for LNG export
Improve seawater cooling with titanium finned tubes